Doodly doo!

The only thing I've managed to work on at all this week art-wise is some doodled painted book pages to use in my journals. Last week I was playing with some of my ink sprays and some stencils and I think some pastels as well and had a bunch ready to play on. My doodles tend to be mostly floral in nature. I've always done that. I will have to see if I can get a little more creative than that sometime.

Otherwise it's just been a little too hectic to actually sit down at the desk and do any real drawing or painting. And I hate it! I just need to get through a few more days and I will actually have time for that once again.Tonight is my son's last ever jazz band concert (he plays the sax). Tomorrow morning is his senior farewell assembly at the school which is usually pretty long. Then Saturday is baccalaureate and graduation... another full day. Sunday is a graduation party for one of my daughter's good friends that she wants me to make an appearance at. Monday.... I don't think I have anything at all for Monday as of yet. Keeping my fingers crossed that it remains that way and if it does I may not even get dressed let alone leave the house! LOL

Until then I will continue to doodle a little bit in the evenings so when I get back at my journal and classes full force I will have something more to work with.

Poor neglected blog...

Yes, I have neglected my blog this past week or so. I have also let my faces slide a little as well. I do hope to catch those up before May is done though. We'll see.

My baby boy is graduating this coming weekend and his graduation party will be in a couple weeks. On top of that I have taken on keeping my youngest grandson a couple mornings a week since my daughter-in-law got herself a new job. This time of year is always crazy busy for us for some reason. No matter what's going on it's just nutso in this house. So if anyone is reading this pitiful little blog, please bear with me for the next few weeks if posts are sporadic. I think once all of the big things are done I will get back to having a lot more me time and playtime for making art (I don't say "arting"... for some reason that just annoys the piss out of me!).

So I don't have a drawn face to share with you today. However I do have one of the best faces on the planet to share with you. This is my granddaughter. It's her birthday today and she is now four years old. I can't believe she's gotten this big already. I know it sounds cliche but it seems like just yesterday I was there in the room with her mommy and daddy the day she was born. I was not prepared for just how much I was going to fall in love with this child. You love your kids, of course. But there is something different when your child has a child and you're now a grandparent. It's a special kind of love that I can't even begin to explain. And now I have a fourth grandchild on the way!

So here is my sweetie being a little ham last night when they came over for birthday celebrations here. She thought she'd be cute and steal my drink and being the grandma that I am I of course picked up the camera instead of correcting the situation. :)

Now this is what I call a face!

Catching up

I've been busy the last couple days again but not so much that I couldn't get a few artsy things accomplished. I played around with a couple faces yesterday. They aren't all that great because I was just quickly sketching on some excess book pages I have from altering a book for Christy's Eclectic Altered Journal class. But at least I'm somewhat caught back up with 29 Faces with face numbers 15 and 16.

I also doodled some flowers and played with my new Prismacolor markers on the book pages. I have a lot to learn with the markers yet. I only have a set of 24 but it's plenty to play with. I really like them so far. I played around with some of my sprays and stencils yesterday too with those book pages. I have SO many book pages I have a lot to mess around with. I will use these in my Eclectic Altered Art Journals... or somewhere.

One more thing I've played with is finishing the couple bound journals I made for my youngest daughter. She keeps a journal now that she's a freshman in college. Just a writing journal. She's not so much into the art thing at this point. But I made a couple coptic bound journals for her with plain copy paper and they turned out awesome. I recycled some boxes for the hard covers and used a roll of white paper I have here for the little ones to play with to cover those with and then used markers to doodle the cover. The second one I left plain for her to decorate herself. I am so tickled with how they turned out and want to make some for myself as well.

I'm not sure what it is about binding my own books that I love so much but I adore the process. I could easily just keep making them and end out with way more books than I'll ever get through so I guess I have to find more people to make them for!

The next thing I need to catch myself up with is Rhomany's Portraits class and the latest Art Geeks prompt. I've fallen behind again. I think that catches the blog up for now. I should be able to get some play time this weekend to do some more before next weekend's big graduation craziness. My baby is graduating. The last one! I can hardly believe it.

Time for Art today

The past couple days have been really hectic here so I unfortunately fell a little deeper into my rut but it was beyond my control. I don't even recall Wednesday anymore... but I know it was busy. Yesterday I had my youngest grandson all morning and minutes after he left early afternoon, my oldest daughter came for a visit with the other two monkeys. And let me tell ya... they were wound up! It was nonstop crazy play until evening. One discovery I've had in this is that I am SO glad I had my kids when they were young because Holy Jeebus!! I couldn't do this every day anymore!By evening I was just plain worn out!

The plan for today was that I was supposed to take my mother-in-law to the airport an hour away for a trip she's taking for the summer. I am SO happy to say that I am off the hook for that now. I was gladly going to take her but since she knows I am not all that comfortable driving in the bigger cities when someone offered to take her that used to live up there she took them up on it. So instead of being gone all day like I first thought, the day is mine! Comfy pants, lots of coffee and some art time here I come! I'll have something to share by the end of today even if it kills me!

Face 14

I completely forgot to post yesterday. I'm in a bit of a rut this week I think. I haven't had much motivation for journaling, painting, drawing, or anything else for that matter. Not really sure what's up with that but trying to dig myself out of it. I have really mostly been drawing homework faces for my Portraits 123 class and counting them as my 29 Faces. It works but it's certainly not much.

Sometime today the Eclectic Altered Art Journals class is supposed to start so I'm hoping having some nice new places to play will inspire me to draw and paint a little more than I have this week. I'm also going to try and work on the latest Art Geeks prompt soon and hopefully that will inspire me too. Until then... here's the little bit of effort I could muster up.

Quiet Mother's Day

I like my Mother's Day nice and quiet. I like to reflect on my own mom's life I guess and since she's been gone for almost 19 years now (has it really been that long??), I don't like a big fuss. It took my family a while to really get that but I think they do now and that's just fine. I'm a mom EVERY day. I don't need one special day a year to fuss over it.

I was too lazy today to even sketch much. I did get a couple more faces sketched though. They are unfinished but dammit I"m counting them for my 29 Faces! I'm hoping this week gets me back on track working a little more on my projects than I was able to this week. I also have one more from yesterday... a practice sketch for my Portraits 123 class.

I see some issues that I need to work out a little better in both of these sketches and I will work on that tomorrow. I would like to turn what I can into finished projects or include them in my art journal when I fix them. But anyway... here's numbers 11, 12, and 13.

Face #10

My son is out with friends this morning so I had some time to eek out a quick face sketch which will be my number 10 face for the 29 Faces challenge. I used another magazine photo as a reference for this one. I'm finding that quite fun. I may play around with some shading for it later when I have some time but for now it's at least a face I can count.

Prom preparations will commence real soon and I will post some pictures of the boy in his crazy outfit. Grand March should be interesting!

Update:

I decided to go ahead and do a little shading right now while I still had a little time. Boys sure are different than girls when it comes to prom! With the girls it was an all day project getting ready to go. My son isn't even home and isn't coming home until it's time to get ready and get out the door for pictures. After five of them... I think I'm finally glad that this will be the last one. This mom is tired! 

A little further...

I've taken my Drew Barrymore sketch a little further. I fixed the right side of her face that looked a little wonky and I fixed the right side of her head that looked like she had a big ol' tumor growing there. We haven't gone that far in the class yet but I went ahead and did some shading on the face according to the photograph. I don't know that my girl really looks much like Drew Barrymore but I'm not hating it as a drawing. Her hair leaves a lot to be desired. I am looking forward to that part of the class so I can get something that looks better. I know I still have a lot of work to do to get better but I don't feel it's too shabby for never having drawn anything until January of this year. I did a little bit in junior high school but I hadn't since then... and never people.

Unfortunately I am not going to have a lot of time to play around with my drawings this weekend. Well not until Sunday anyway. My youngest son's senior prom is Saturday. We just picked up his tux. The boy has a sense of humor, that's for sure. The tux he is wearing did not come from a tuxedo shop. It came from a costume shop. It is the powder blue tux with tails and ruffles from the movie Dumb and Dumber. He's wearing his high top Converse sneakers with it and carrying a cane. It's actually the tux he wore a couple years ago in the high school's production of Grease. He was Eugene (the nerd) and he wore it in the big dance scene.So yeah... tomorrow will be interesting to say the least!

Sketching and class homework

I was finally able to sit down and concentrate on one of my new classes I'm taking with Rhomany. I didn't think I have been doing this long enough to be "set in my ways" but having a bit of trouble teaching this old dog new tricks. LOL  I have no doubt the system works. I can see that it works. I'm just having a little trouble applying it. I will persevere!

So I have a little homework to show and just a sketch I played with. Today is really the first time I've ever tried to draw a face from a photo. I quite like my second one. It's certainly got a LOT of room to improve but not too shabby for a first couple tries. I'm going to count these two faces as my numbers 8 and 9 for my 29 Faces challenge. I may have more to post by the end of the day as well. I'm in that mode now to keep going.

I don't think this first portrait is the greatest. It could definitely be better. The second is supposed to be Drew Barrymore. I'm much happier with her than I am with the first one even though she could use a lot of improvement as well.

I highly recommend Rhomany's Portrait 123 class though. Seriously... I've taken several classes online already. Some were pretty great and some... eh. This is the first time that I've really felt like I was learning something new though. She's VERY thorough with the content she provides in the classes and seems to be every bit as helpful when you feel stuck. I love fun and games as much as the next person, but her no nonsense approach to teaching makes me really feel like I am getting my money's worth. And this is just having gone through the first lesson only! :) Kudos to Rhomany! I can't recommend her classes enough.

Finally some play time!

I took my time getting myself motivated to do any sketching today. The coffee just wasn't doing its thing! But once I got started I have been on a roll. I put this charcoal sketch in a recycled art journal I recently started. It's not the greatest but it'll do. I played with some sprays and stencils in it last night before I got too tired and just decided to do the sketch there. I used a few pan pastels for some color. Two more to go and I will be caught up with 29 Faces again.

I am hoping to get started on Rhomany's Portrait's 123 class with my next faces. I joined this class earlier in the week and have had next to no time to even look at it, let alone work on any of it. I did watch some of the videos last night though and I have to say this is probably one of the better portrait classes I've seen yet. Very thorough and well organized! I am looking forward to diving in and getting started with the exercises.

I'm also signed up for Christy's Eclectic Altered Art Journals class coming up on the 15th of this month. I am chomping at the bit to start that one! I love making hand-bound journals but I also love the idea of recycling things I already have here or can get free or cheap somewhere. I was at the Goodwill store yesterday and bought several books to use as altered journals for this. I also got some sheet music there and an old dictionary to use the pages in my journals. In the meantime while I wait for the class to get started I've tried a few things on my own. I'm a little unsure of how successful I am with it at this point but it's all learning, right?

Yeah... this art journal crap has pretty much taken over my life. :)

So much for being ahead!

I haven't drawn a face since the weekend! I was two or three faces ahead in the beginning and now I'm two behind if I don't get any done today. But I WILL get them done. If not today then definitely tomorrow.

It's been a crazy busy last few days. My youngest is graduating in a few weeks and had his very last "May Fiesta" choir concert this weekend. It's a big deal in our town and they always hold a special little ceremony for the senior choir members. Yes, I cried. He's my baby!

Then Monday I had my sick grandson while his mommy and daddy worked. He was really clingy so he pretty much set up camp on my lap the whole afternoon. Needless to say this did not create much time for drawing/painting.Today I had to grocery shop and then my youngest daughter came to spend the afternoon with me... a kind of last minute thing. She is a summer RA in her college dorm so isn't coming home for the summer. It's just a couple blocks away though. But she has so many jobs and duties there that I hardly ever get to see her and she had a day off and wanted to use my craft supplies for a project. LOL  And now that same grandbaby is here for the evening while his parents are at a baseball game. So definitely not much time for art. I'm thinking tomorrow I am putting on comfy clothes and not leaving the house all day so I can play at my art desk.

One thing I did do while my daughter was here was work on a hand-bound journal that I'm making for her. Just regular paper, coptic bound for her to write in. I got all the signatures sewn together. I just need to put a hard cover on it for her and she wants me to decorate it somehow. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE to bind my own journals??

No art today

Not much in the way of art to post about today. Got up WAY too early for a Saturday and ended out laying back down for a while later in the morning and when I got back up I ended up watching Creative Adventures on Linqto for several hours, learning all kinds of new things until I just couldn't avoid it any longer and needed to put "real" clothes on instead of the sweats I schlepped around in all day.

My youngest... my little baby... is a senior this year and like all my older kids, has been very involved in the award winning high school choir here. Tonight is his very last May Fiesta... a BIG choir concert our high school has every year. It's always especially big for the seniors because they do a big senior slide show at the end for all the choir seniors. I've been going to these and going to these over the years and this will be my last one! And I'm not even going to try and pretend like I'm not gonna cry. It'll happen!

So it's a good thing that I got myself ahead on my 29 Faces this week because by tomorrow I will no longer be ahead anymore! Tomorrow there will be art time though come hell or high water!

Journal love

Looking at my journal this morning makes me so happy. I made this journal by hand and I absolutely love it. There are four signatures in it and there is only one signature left to fill up with artsy goodies. I have another one already put together and waiting to replace it once it's all filled. I will be looking for another cute charm to dangle off the binding like this, too. I honestly didn't think I would keep up with this but I am loving the whole art journaling process. :)

Six of 29 Faces

 I am up really late once again tonight. This time not necessarily by choice. Yes, I'm still dragging ass from the insomnia last night but tonight my son just HAD to go to the midnight Avengers movie with a bunch of his senior buddies. I'm sure I could go to sleep if I wanted but I still like to wait up and make sure he gets home ok. Yes... he's still going to school tomorrow. Morning should be fun!

 As much as I was dragging my feet about doing this 29 Faces challenge, I'm really having a ball with it. Most of these are going in my first handmade journal. It's going to be all filled up before I know it.

I had this partial background already started so I decided to put my next face on it. The colors were bright like my last spread so I wanted another bright and fun girl and I think I succeeded with that. LOL  She turned out a bit wacky but I love her. I put some texture in her hair with Golden glass bead medium. Love that stuff! It's hard to tell in the picture but her peace sign on her choker is purple glitter (Love my Stickles!). She's probably not quite completely finished yet because I think I want to do a little journaling on this page but I will save that part for morning.

#4 and #5 of 29 Faces

This spread will count for numbers 3 and 4 of my 29 Faces for May. It is also my Duality spread for Art Geeks. I haven't done much in the way of painting over a big goobered up background before. I used to always paint my face and then put a background in later or as I go. I really actually liked this process a lot. I love having bits of the background coming up through the girls.

We all have different aspects of ourselves. I'm sure most of us have even more than two but I combined pretty much the positives on one side and the negatives on the other. I try to be a pretty positive person and when I am positive I am quite happy. But on the other hand I can also find myself in this sad and lonely place because of certain circumstances. I try very hard to not let these things take over me. And this is precisely why I used bright and happy colors throughout... on both the positive and negative sides. Because I fight it! I fight it every day and will continue to do so til when hopefully I won't have to fight so much anymore.

Anyhoo... this is probably going to be it for the day. I'm BEAT from not sleeping so great last night and I did this big spread and some chores around the house AND went out to lunch with my youngest daughter and some of her friends before they went home (from college) for the summer. Long day already!

#3 of 29 Faces

I can't sleep tonight for some reason. Probably because it's a little too warm for my liking. But I like to turn that into something positive so I decided to go ahead and do my third of my 29 Faces. I'm not always this productive when I get a bout of insomnia but I try to be. It tends to happen a lot in the summer time since the heat doesn't agree with me so much. At least I'll be filling up a lot of art journals that way!

This face was done in my coptic bound journal that I made to do Suzi Blu's journal workshop, A Lovely Dream. I LOVE these journals! I use Stonehenge printmaking paper for them and I really like that paper for how affordable it is. It can take a beating with the mixed media! Anyway this face is serving a dual purpose. It is my third of my 29 Faces and it is also my Lesson #13 project for A Lovely Dream. She is done in mostly Pan Pastels. I have limited colors I can use for skin tones so it was a bit of a challenge but I think I made it work. I mostly used white and a darkish brown as well as a magenta. I definitely need to work on my writing. I am not too happy with that part of the portrait but it'll do.

If I'm not too worn out tomorrow from being up so late tonight, I hope to work on the next project for Art Geeks. Duality is the theme.

Second of 29 Faces for May

Three posts in one day and it's only just now lunch time! Raging cramps and all... I'm gettin' things done today dammit! LOL  I had a fold-out flap in my journal that just had a painted background on it and it needed a little something so I decided to use that for my second face for 29 Faces for May. She is just a simple charcoal sketch with just a little bit of Prismacolor pencil for details and I added some stamping to the page and left it at that. Cute and simple. I like that some days.

Now I suppose I should probably get to some "real life" chores now that I've spent the morning playing with art supplies. But who knows, I may get in another project before the day is through.

Finished Angel

After a few cups of java I went straight to my art desk and worked on painting my first angel with watercolors. I don't find watercolor quite so forgiving as a lot of people do. I think it's probably because I don't really have the proper techniques down yet but I will continue to work on it. I wish the photo showed my pearly paints though. I used them in the halo, the wings, and the banner. Maybe I'll try and get a better photo later.

I'm not sure straight watercolor will ever be my thing. I do admit that I used some Prismacolor pencils to help this painting out a little bit. Also some pen as well. And I probably will continue to do so as long as my watercolor paintings look as messy as they do when finished with the watercolor part. I just can't leave it like that so in comes the mixed media! I put this angel in my art journal instead of making a painting for display. I may keep practicing though and try working on one to display eventually.

First of 29 Faces for May

I didn't get done as much as I would have liked to yesterday unfortunately. I ended up going to visit my youngest daughter in her college dorm yesterday instead of working on my first angel for Angels in my Studio. I did, however, get the sketch done so she will be my first face in 29 Faces for May. I do hope to get her painted today though. I don't have much else to do around the house today since I got myself caught up yesterday.

As much as I love my cooler seasons, I am loving the slightly warmer weather we're having. If for nothing else, I love that I am able to start wearing dresses again! I love the new(ish) maxi dresses and bought myself a bunch of them several weeks ago and haven't been able to wear them much until now. It's actually supposed to be a little TOO hot for my liking today... in the mid 80's. Ugh! But hey, at least I can wear a cute dress, right?

A new beginning...

I used to keep a blog once upon a time. I just looked and it's been two years since the last time I updated! That's a long time! I thought I might just restart that blog back up but the more I looked at it the more I just really wanted to start fresh with a new one. I've changed a lot since then. My style has changed a lot since then. My obsessions have even changed a bit since then. This past year as brought me a LOT of changes, not just in blog form. So yes... I will be starting fresh and this is where I will share my latest obsessions. And lately that is art and art journaling.

My latest finished project is this "madonna-ish" woman. I was thinking a lot about and feeling a lot of gratitude on Sunday when I made it and this is just what I ended up with. She is done totally in oil pastels smooshed around with my fingers. The best way to do art, I think! I used funky colors on her and I'm pretty pleased with how she turned out. She could be better but I'm not going there. I will just keep plugging along and practicing.

Soon I will have a link up to some of my other finished projects thus far. I also need to finish my first face of the 29 Faces challenge for May. I am using my first watercolor angel from Angels in my Studio that just started up this morning. I was totally NOT going to do this challenge but after watching all the talk of it in some of the Facebook groups, I just couldn't stand it anymore and I decided to give it a go. I'm hoping to get caught up on some of my other projects by doing the challenge. Here's hoping anyway!